M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 38

Please Explain to Me How Being “Woke” Is a Bad Thing?

If the choice is “woke” and aware vs “asleep” and clueless, I don’t get it.

Photo by Jolanda Kirpensteijn on Unsplash

I have been seeing a lot about this whole notion of “woke” culture from the far right being portrayed as a bad thing.

What is “woke” culture, anyhow?

A quick search online brings me to this conclusion – “woke” culture is where people, businesses, and other entities not impacted by certain injustices – for example, white people who will never endure what black people do – start to be aware and actively participate in demanding fair treatment, equality, and the like.

Somehow, this has gotten weaponized – mostly by politicians – to pass laws that are negatively impacting voting rights, abortion, LGBTQA+ rights, and anything else not male and white. “Woke” is seen by these people as pushing an alternative view of the way the world works. That includes the topics of LGBTQA+ rights, critical race theory, and anything else where – to be blunt – white people have always dominated.

But what would the opposite of woke, in this content, be? Unaware? Ignorant? Clinging to the past? Because I cannot for the life of me place a legitimate reason to be the opposite of aware – which is what “woke” is.

Let’s get literal a moment

When you are awake you are capable of being consciously aware. Note – I write capable, here, because there are plenty of people who live life awake and not consciously aware.

Some do so by choice. They allow themselves to be lived by life and just go with the flow. Others allow themselves to run on autopilot, letting their subconscious mind take the wheel and do the driving.

When you are asleep – literally – you’re not consciously aware. Nor are you capable of being consciously aware. And for some people, their subconscious minds in sleep take them to all kinds of places – many of which are undesirable.

Nightmares and unpleasant dreams. Stress dreams. Anxiety dreams. Unconsciously chewing on past events and future fears. Not fun at all.

The first step you need to take control of your life is to be awake. Literally. Not just not asleep, but consciously aware of both yourself and what is going on around you. In other words – mindful and practicing mindfulness.

This can be applied to all matters of who, what, where, how, why, and when you are. This is both literal and metaphorical.

This means that you must be awake. Or “woke”.

Please tell me again how “woke” is or can be a bad thing?

To be woke is to be aware

I am a middle-aged, white, mostly straight, cis-gendered male. The only distinction I have in this regard is that I was raised Jewish (and still, culturally, am).

Thus, I know that I will never fully know or understand the plight of a woman, a black person, an immigrant, any other POC, anyone LGBTQA+, Muslim, or anything not white and male. I can’t.

However – that doesn’t mean I do not fully support the things that will help people I am not and never will be. That’s why I went to the protest at the Supreme Court the day the pending decision was leaked. It’s why I won’t eat at Chik-fil-a at all. It’s why I try not to buy products from companies that support taking away rights, limiting freedoms, or harming the planet.

I guess that makes me “woke”. I’m aware of those doing harm and have compassion and empathy for the people who will be harmed as such.

Explain to me how this is a bad thing?

Anything that harms anyone harms all of us, people. It’s that simple. Abortion happened before Roe vs Wade. It will happen if they repeal it – but now a lot more lives will be lost, and the prison system will become even more overwhelmed as new classes of people go to prison. The history of the United States is not all about the white guys – it involves people of color, too. That’s why critical race theory matters.

Knowledge is power. When you are awake do you gain more knowledge? Of course! And therein lies the truth of the lie.

Photo by Callum Shaw on UnsplashThe “woke” have a clue

One of the greatest tragedies of the information age is how much disinformation is out there. Worse, not just out there – but spread. Worse still, the line between legitimate and fake news sources is so badly blurred that people are falling hook, line, and sinker for propaganda and other outright bullshit.

The idea that being “woke” makes someone less is ludicrous. Unless you are awake you gain nothing. You can’t learn anything – hell, you can’t do anything unless you are awake.

“Woke” is the same. You don’t just learn to a certain point and then stop. Much as some people want us to think this is so, you don’t stop learning after formal schooling and college.

One of the biggest reasons they want to keep critical race theory out of schools – as well as lots of other important things like sex education, music, and other arts – is to keep you unaware. The last thing “they” want is for you to be awake and aware. Why? Because they lose the shaky, false power they have.

To be fair, our society needs laws and a degree of order. But do we need career politicians, long out of touch with reality and real people, or these meritless, clueless talking heads making those laws? Hell no. All of their so-called power is artificial. And they play on the fears of people to attain it.

One of the biggest causes of fear is a lack of knowledge. We tend to be afraid of things we don’t know. Thus, if you are “woke” you have a clue. If not, you don’t.

How much easier is it to control a person half-asleep, unaware, and afraid? Very.

So, explain to me again how “woke” is in any way bad?

You see what’s really going on out there

That’s the problem. Critical race theory acknowledges black people, their struggles, and their place in our history. Increasing LGBTQA+ equality and protection recognizes that not straight, not cis-gendered people exist. Taking away legal abortion dismisses the bodily autonomy and equality of women.

Guess what? Black people have been just as much a part of American history as white people. Oh, and you also need to include the indigenous peoples, Asians, Hispanics, and all the other non-white non-male participants in our society, too. Not-heterosexual is a matter of wiring – it just is, like being tall or short. And women are equal to men in most ways, and frankly superior in many, too.

How is “woke” culture a bad thing? I’m suspect because it is an awake and consciously aware culture. And a society that’s awake and consciously aware becomes dangerously empowered. That removes the need for lots of demagogues, talking heads, and various other people in power or seeking it.

Do you like not having control of your life? I am going to venture a guess and say no. You desire to be in control of your life. Can you be in control if you are not awake? No. Hence, you need to be woken up to take control.

“Woke” and aware and able to take control – versus “status quo” – I guess – and asleep without control? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Please explain to me how being “woke” – and thus in control and consciously aware – is a bad thing? The truth is that it’s not at all. In fact, it looks like a positive to me.

Thank you for coming along on this ride with me.

This is the four hundred and thirty-second entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post Please Explain to Me How Being “Woke” Is a Bad Thing? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Is This a Good Idea? It Might Be for Me, But Not for You

Not every good idea is good for everyone.

Photo by CJ Dayrit on Unsplash

I have lots of ideas.

You likely have lots of ideas.

Some are ginormous, veritably insurmountable, and lofty as all get-out. Others are more approachable, have paths you can take that people have taken before, and/or roadmaps can be found and employed

Most ideas are just ideas. Neither good nor bad. They simply are. And you have them all the time.

I’ve been known to spew ideas just because they are fun to share. I’ve been known, when many are ludicrous, sarcastic, or clearly not good to remark, “I said I had an idea. I didn’t say it was a good idea.”

How do you define a good idea from a bad idea? Like reality is different for each of us (within the context of the shared collective consciousness), a good idea for me might not be a good idea for you. And there are numerous reasons why this might be.

But maybe we should begin by exploring how ideas differ.

Idea vs good idea vs bad idea

Most ideas tend to just be. They are neither good nor bad – they just are.

Sometimes this comes down to intent. Other times it’s aim and focus. Of course, at times, it’s utterly circumstantial and not under anyone’s control.

To be fair, certain ideas are always bad.

Murder not in self-defenseStealing to amass wealthIntentionally harming or hurting someone elseWanton, senseless destruction

You get the idea. And note – I am VERY specific about these bad ideas, because there’s a difference between, for example, killing someone in self-defense and stealing bread to feed a starving child. Still not good, but not necessarily outright bad.

Likewise, certain ideas are always good.

Saying thank you and giving gratitudeOffering truly unconditional love and supportRescuing shelter animalsLooking both ways before you cross the street

Again, being specific because most ideas, at their root, just are.

All my examples above are small ideas. They won’t necessarily be earth-shattering or otherwise deeply impactful. Except that they could be.

You never know the impact giving gratitude to someone could have. The Domino Effect is a thing.

Defining idea vs good idea vs bad idea helps us to understand a key component of any and all ideas.

No two people are alike

What I desire for my life experience is not what you desire for your life experience. My relationships are not like yours. They might be similar, there could be common threads between them. But who, what, where, how, and why I am is not who, what, where, how, and why you are. That’s the way it is.

Everyone has ideas. It’s part of human nature. Ideas are how we grow, evolve, develop, and create. Without them, we’d still be nomadic hunter-gatherers, merely existing and subsisting rather than what the human race has become.

Have you ever stopped to wonder who got the idea to gather leaves, berries, fruits, and the like – dry them out, then steep them in hot water? Most of us only consider which bag or infuser to use when it comes to tea, now. But once upon a time – someone had the idea to create the first tea.

This applies to everything that makes up our world. Someone had the idea to create a device for global communications and mobile computing. You might be using such right now to read this.

Sometimes an idea can lead to something bad. The science that unlocked nuclear fission was not intent on turning it into the most destructive bomb we could employ. Yet that’s one place the idea led us.

Some ideas scare people. All you have to do is look at American politics and much of the conservative agenda, and you see the fear that new ideas (many of which are, frankly, not so new) cause.

This is why a good idea for me might not be a good idea for you.

Photo by Dayne Topkin on UnsplashA good idea for me might not work for you

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been working on creating my brand and developing my writing to better earn my living. This has not been without its challenges.

This has been a good idea for me because I am overall content with my life, while excited for the potential and possibility that I am working on building up. It’s also been good for me because my wife has been fully and completely supportive in multiple ways.

For someone else, this might be a bad idea. They might need to be in an office, or working with their hands, or doing something more conventional. The lifestyle I love might be deeply unpleasant to and for them.

Just because I think it’s a good idea for me doesn’t mean it’s automatically a good idea for you. And damn is that true of the whole wide world.

If you find certain restrictions and limitations a good idea for you – that doesn’t make them good for everyone else. Part of the problem the United States has right now is a certain group of “Christians” working to force their ideology on everyone else, as though it’s a good idea for all. FYI – it’s not.

Your good idea might be a bad idea for me. And vice versa. While we don’t need to necessarily agree, here – we do need to be cognizant of our prejudices, biases, values, and beliefs – and that just because they differ that doesn’t make one greater or lesser than the other.

With mindfulness, we can all coexist.

Mindfulness for coexistent ideas

I think one of the biggest problems in the world today is conflict around ideas. Sometimes such conflict is legit, in that attempts to force people to your idea of how things are or should be is never right for anyone else. Sorry, it won’t work.

We need to be better at accepting and understanding that we’re all different. While we might disagree, overall there is room for all our ideas to coexist. This applies to religion, culture, values, morals, and lots of other far-reaching notions.

When you work to force people to your idea and way of thinking you will create conflict. That’s because you can present the best conceived, truly good idea for you – that’s not a good idea for someone else.

Likewise, we need to be more accepting that different isn’t a bad thing. And some differences are wiring while others are choices. So long as you intend to cause no harm or hurt, your idea is valid. But know it might not work for all. And that’s ok.

A good idea for me might not be a good idea for you. Mindfulness of this truth allows us to work together, rather than let differing ideas divide us. That’s a choice.

Hate is a choice. Fear is a choice. Forcing an idea down someone else’s throat is a choice – and a poor one.

Not every good idea is good for everyone. When you are mindful and consciously aware of this, you can work with your intent to create more balance in your corner of the world, and potentially spread that to the world at large. Mindfulness is knowledge, and knowledge is power and empowerment.

Do you have an idea you believe is a good idea?

This is the five-hundred and forty-second exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info then click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post Is This a Good Idea? It Might Be for Me, But Not for You appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Are You Really, Truly Ready to Give Up Your Hope?

Don’t give up your hope. That’s what they want.

Photo by Ahmed Hasan on Unsplash

Don’t give up your hope. It is neither a weakness nor does it disempower you.

The doom and gloom across the world presently are deeply distressing. There is the utterly ludicrous and crushing invasion of Ukraine by Putin and his army, the seemingly never-ending battle with the COVID pandemic, and the terrifyingly regressive leaked US Supreme Court decision, just to name a few things.

Each on its own is overwhelming doom and gloom. Put them all together, and it’s hard to breathe without feeling like everything is on fire and the world is crashing down around us.

Yes, it’s bad. Nobody can deny that. But if you give up your hope, you let them disempower you.

So what? You are here. Now. Maybe one of these situations is directly impacting you. Perhaps not. But whatever the case might be, you are here. And so long as you live, you have hope.

How does this work?

Hope is a combination of thought, feeling, and intuitive knowing that anything is possible. Specifically, anything good, positive, or able to repair the bad and various negatives we encounter.

When you apply for a job, you hope you will get it. If you ask someone out on a date, you hope they’ll say yes. When a teacher passes a graded test back to you, you hope for a good grade. If you do a good job at work, you hope for recognition, a raise, and the like.

Hope is on every corner, often seemingly insignificant and ever-present. It is an utterly unique blend of thought, feeling, sensation, and generally knowing that defies a simple description.

Unfortunately, three negatives fall into the same indescribable category. Depression, fear, and anxiety. Each is an indefinable blend of thought, feeling, and just being that transmutes between forms and sensations, and frequently defies description.

Hope, however, is a positive, not a negative nor a weakness. Hope is belief in the unseen, in an outcome that might seem improbable or complicated – but is nevertheless present and desirable.

For example – I have hope that this terrible decision the Supreme Court justices have penned will wake up the masses. I hope this will cause the silent majority to end their silence and start being heard, demanding this backward notion be addressed by a new law from Congress.

Naïve? Maybe. But hope is all about belief that bad situations can be turned around.

It’s how we continue to take on the impossible and overcome it.

Your hope empowers you

The all-too-present “they” abhor hope.

Look at movies like Rogue One, Schindler’s List, Avengers: Endgame, and The Shawshank Redemption, for example. All their central plots are predicated on hope. Hope to stop tyranny, to save lives, to bring back the lost, for freedom. And I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t empathize with such hopes.

Putin wants the people of Ukraine to lose hope and roll over for his army. That’s not working thus far at all. The far-right wants pro-choice advocates to lose hope and for women to lose hope of having body autonomy. I don’t think that’s going to go how they’d like it to, either.

I have hope. Hope that Ukraine comes out on top. That we can get new people into office to increase the separation of religion and state. I have hope.

It is empowering. Hope can be inspiring. Your hope is a weapon that can be used by you to let “them” know you won’t just roll over and take the scraps they’re tossing. You are stronger than that.

Because that’s the truth when all is said and done.

Photo by Rosie Kerr on UnsplashYou are worthy and deserving of better

Hope has changed the world before. It will change the world again.

Tyranny and oppression never win. Not in the long run. It may take a generation or two – but hope always overwhelms because the disempowered always have access to hope to empower themselves.

You are worthy and deserving of your hope. Hope is not weakness, it’s not folly, and it doesn’t make you lesser. Quite the opposite. Hope empowers.

You deserve to earn a decent living with good pay and benefits. You are worthy of not having to struggle for basic needs or to prove your autonomy. It doesn’t matter what gender you identify as, the color of your skin, your religious practice or lack thereof, or anything else. You are worthy and deserving of having and being the best you that you can be.

Know this – that takes nothing away from anyone else.

Most of the arguments against raising the minimum wage come from lack and scarcity. Why should a fast-food worker make the same as a paramedic? It’s not an either/or matter. In reality, the paramedic should be making more, shouldn’t they?

Don’t even get me started on teachers, nurses, and their pay or treatment.

Likewise, empowering women, LGBTQA+ individuals, and minorities takes nothing away from anyone else. But that’s how “they” frame it – and then use it to discourage your hope.

This is an abundant Universe. All lack and scarcity are artificial. And if something does run out – something new will be found to take its place.

Don’t give up your hope. That’s what they want. Hope is how you are empowered – and that points your focus along the cylinder towards positivity. The good that can come from that is incredibly amazing. And you are completely worthy and deserving of having and achieving that.

Maintaining and keeping your hope isn’t hard

It’s all about working with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

When you have hope, you are empowered. That opens you to work with and direct your life in ways that keep you in control – and prevent “them” from disempowering you. Knowing that hope is neither weakness nor some other disadvantage, it lets us make choices and decisions to keep fighting for our best lives and the good we are all worthy and deserving of. That empowers me – and it can empower you, too. We can make use of this to stay more neutral subconsciously, while consciously choosing things leaning towards the positive end of life’s extremes.

Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast space that exists between them – shifts the concept in a way to open more dialogue. In that form, we can explore and share where we are between those extremes and how that impacts us here and now.

Lastly, I believe the better aware we are of ourselves in the now, the more we can do to choose and decide how our life experiences will be. If that empowers us, it can also open those around us to their own empowerment. And that is, to me, a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share.

Thank you for coming along on this ride with me.

This is the four hundred and thirty-first entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post Are You Really, Truly Ready to Give Up Your Hope? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Is My Path Just About Me and Me Alone?

My path is only mine – but it’s not just about myself.

Photo by Anisur Rahman on Unsplash

For over a decade I have been writing about my ongoing process of finding, creating, and choosing my own path in this life.

This has had many ups and downs and challenges along the way. But since truly starting to walk one path of my choosing or another, I have been more content, more satisfied, and frankly happier with the life I have been living.

While some might see the notion of Pathwalking as selfish, I do not feel that it is at all. That’s because multiple aspects of the path that I would choose are about how I can help, serve, and do for others.

On vacation, I attended a protest

This week, my wife and I were visiting Washington, DC. She had discovered that she could do research at the Library of Congress – and had made appointments and got a reader card to do just that.

While she did that over two days, I would go visit some museums and other attractions in DC.

And then, the horrific draft decision from the Supreme Court, explicitly overturning Roe v Wade, came to light. The fundamental rights of women across the nation would cease to be protected, and the door opened to taking away other fundamental rights in the name of “states’ rights” and “morality” and other BS excuses to oppress.

This is wrong. Period. The lives of the unborn over the lives of women – and denying them their fundamental given right to body autonomy and choosing for themselves – should not be the direction we are going. That’s 50 years of progress and advancing human rights down the drain.

I feel rather strongly about this, as you can probably tell here. So – knowing protests would occur, and being in DC as this happened, I went to the Supreme Court.

As a cis-gender male, I was very much in the minority attending this protest. But I joined the mixed and furious crowd to send a message to the jurists in the building behind me and the various representatives in the building in front of me (Congress). Keep your bans off our bodies!

This is the second time I attended a protest in DC. In 2017, following the election of Trump, I attended the March for Science.

Among the few things that I can do when faced with situations like these, I have written before that attending a protest is an option. And believing very, very firmly in a woman’s right to decide for herself what she does for her body – I joined the protesters to offer my voice of support.

Protest at the Supreme Court – 5/3/22My path is not just about me

This was is not just some gesture I am making for grandstanding, showboating, or to gain anything for myself. No. This is how I can be supportive of a cause I believe in, be present to represent the support of someone only indirectly impacted by this terrible decision, and help in one of the few ways that I can.

But that is, fundamentally, what my path is about.

Some people might see the notion of choosing their own life path as an act of selfishness. Let’s face it, putting yourself first has been increasingly demonized over the years. But if you do not act mindfully and choose your life experience – who does?

The thing is – choosing your own life experience doesn’t mean you become egotistical, greedy, narcissistic, or otherwise unpleasant. What it means is that you choose your path – rather than cede that choice to circumstance, someone else, or whatever.

My path in life that I have chosen is majorly not about me. While I choose to live on my terms as best I can, much of that is in service to others.

My path involves teaching, helping, educating, and inspiring. Opening minds, sparking imaginations, expanding creativity. My path is not about me in that it’s about how I can do more for others.

Every path is as unique as every individual on the planet

My path is not your path – and vice versa

Like snowflakes, no two paths are alike.

They might be similar. There might be tons of nuances that are identical. But they are not the same.

What, how, why, where, and who you are is not the same as what, how, why, where, and who I am. And that’s ok. Thus, I can choose my path – and my focus to help, teach, and inspire others – without impacting yours.

That’s because this is an abundant Universe we live in. There is plenty to go around for me and you.

This is part of why oppressive laws are so enraging to me. Limiting access, denying body autonomy, and everything else tied to this horrific pending decision by the court opens the door to further denial of rights and oppression – and they know it.

My path is not selfish because true selfishness causes intentional hurt and harm. Denying rights and oppressing people, FYI, is selfish because it causes intentional hurt and harm. Choosing to live your life on your terms might cause hurt and harm when you leave people behind or stop being a doormat for some – but that’s not selfish. It’s a matter of self-care.

There is not a single pie with only a few slices to go around. There is infinite pie, and more than enough slices to satiate and satisfy everyone everywhere.

You are as worthy and deserving of choosing your life path as I am. And whatever your path is – it’s as worthy and deserving of you as you are of it.

My path is not about just me. And I will continue to walk it to do all that I can, in whatever way I can – writing, voting, protesting, speaking, whatever – to live as I choose and help you do the same.

Thanks for being on my path. Are you choosing your path?

PS – May the Fourth be with you!

This is the five-hundred and forty-first exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info then click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post Is My Path Just About Me and Me Alone? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Complain and Spin Out or Complain, Accept, and Move On?

It’s normal to complain, but what comes next is a choice.

Photo by ABDALLA M on Unsplash

I know some people who can and will complain about just about anything and everything you can imagine.

This, that, or the other thing – they’ll complain about it. Sometimes they will drone on and on – even years and years after whatever it is they are complaining about.

Has anyone ever gotten anywhere by complaining? Not to my knowledge. Sure, when you have a legit complaint and bring it to the attention of certain authorities, you might get recompense or some other repair to a given problem or situation. But I think that’s because there’s a difference between a complaint and complaining.

A complaint is an of-the-moment, there’s a problem matter. Hair in your food at a restaurant, package delivery that didn’t deliver, and horrendous customer service creating a complaint are actionable. Complaining about how that person hurt you 40 years ago is not. That is how a complaint and complaining differ.

And this is a choice. You get to decide if you will complain and spin out, or complain and let something go.

Be mindful and choose

I am going to cut straight to the point here. You have a choice when it comes to complaining.

Let’s face it – it is human nature to complain. We all want things to be a certain way, to happen in a specific order, and so on. When they don’t, it’s normal to complain.

But there is a huge difference between complaining and spinning out and complaining and letting it go. And it comes down to choice.

When you complain about something, you choose how to focus on that.

For example – yesterday my wife and I were driving. The road and the scenery were pleasant, and the company was also extremely pleasant. It was quite nice.

But I had a slight complaint. It was overcast. So the blue skies that I love were hidden behind clouds.

I observed this. But I didn’t spin out and let it ruin an otherwise perfect experience. I stated my complaint, then released it.

Then, I took it a step further. I put a silver lining on those grey clouds. I stated that, on the plus side, I wasn’t being blinded by a bright sun and glare.

That was it. I let it go. But I could have chosen not to – and let something utterly and completely outside of my control spin me out and ruin my day.

When you choose to complain about something on and on – that’s a choice. And all it does is make you an unnecessarily negative, unhappy person.

Why complain if you can’t act on it?

This is the question to ask if you complain. Why complain if there is nothing you can do with or about it?

That hurt that you felt over the action or inaction of another person – that happened some time ago – does complaining about it today fix it? Make it better? Punish the person who caused you that hurt? No.

That hurt caused over 40 years ago that you still bring up today is not an actionable complaint. At this stage, decades later, all you can do is keep rehashing and re-hurting yourself over that – or let it go.

If you choose to complain, it’s the equivalent of scratching off a scab and bleeding again. Do that enough times and you are guaranteed a scar. That’s a pointless self-inflicted wound.

You are the only one who can realize if you are complaining, and if it’s at all actionable – or not. If you can’t do anything at all about it, or you are just re-inflicting the wound again and again – why do you keep rehashing it?

Be mindful, make a choice, and you can decide what comes next. I don’t know about you – but I think that’s super empowering. And why hold onto so much pointless, useless negativity and complain about it over and over again?

Recognizing how you complain and what happens next isn’t hard

It’s all about working with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

When you are mindful and consciously aware of the difference between complaining and an actionable complaint, you can see where you are and what you are doing. Knowing that what you complain about is doing nothing but reinjuring yourself for no good reason, you can choose to release it rather than continue to spin yourself out. That empowers me – and it can empower you, too. We can make use of this to stay more neutral subconsciously, while consciously choosing things leaning towards the positive end of life’s extremes.

Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast space that exists between them – shifts the concept in a way to open more dialogue. In that form, we can explore and share where we are between those extremes and how that impacts us here and now.

Lastly, I believe the better aware we are of ourselves in the now, the more we can do to choose and decide how our life experience will be. If that empowers us, it can also open those around us to their own empowerment. And that is, to me, a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share.

Thank you for coming along on this ride with me.

This is the four hundred and thirtieth entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post Complain and Spin Out or Complain, Accept, and Move On? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Why Should You Write Down Your Ideas and Interesting Thoughts ASAP?

When you write down your ideas, they become harder to lose or misplace.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

This is not the article I was originally writing.

Nope, that article was on a completely different topic. I was about halfway done writing it.

Then, my computer crashed. The usual recovery file that tends to pop up when I restart MS Word didn’t. After spending probably more time than I should have searching for this – it all proved to be for naught.

The worst part? I cannot for the life of me recall what I was writing before.

The title? Gone? Topic? Can’t remember. A good 20 minutes of work was erased.

Two lessons come from this. One – SAVE MORE OFTEN. You’d think, way back in college when I lost the entire beginning of a story because I didn’t save, I’d remember this. Yeah, MS Word nowadays should autosave. But…here we are.

Two – always write down your ideas and interesting thoughts as soon as possible.

Allow me to introduce another instance where I encounter this often.

Improv is my friend

In the medieval reenactment society that I’ve been playing with for 30 years now, I sometimes serve as the herald of the court. That loosely means I am the MC for the crown – serving as their voice as they call people up to give awards out, among other things.

Many of the awards come with fancy, handmade, custom scrolls. Incredible works of art featuring frequently impressive calligraphy and illumination. Some are seriously museum-worthy recreations for our purposes.

With said scrolls there are words. That’s what the herald reads. Sometimes they are based on historic texts, occasionally poetic, sometimes just fun, recipient-specific words.

Occasionally, either an award is done last minute – before a scroll can be created – or the scroll doesn’t arrive at the event. When that happens, some rely on pre-fab texts that cover the basics and allow you to add a name/award/date on the fly.

I don’t. I improvise.

Improve theatre has always been a specialty of mine. And, after all the time I’ve been part of the game, I can quickly whip up an original text and say it like it was written long beforehand.

Here’s the problem. After I have spoken it – it’s gone. I rarely remember just what I said. So, if it was particularly good – unless someone recorded it – I can’t recreate it.

More than once, someone asked me for these words. I’ve had to recreate them as best I can a few times.

But this is an excellent reason why you should write down your ideas and interesting thoughts ASAP. Because you might say or think something great – and lose it just as fast as it came to you.

In the aforementioned circumstance, I’ve had as little as 20 seconds to improvise. Hence, pre-writing the words wasn’t an option.

Write it down, type it out, whatever

Given the choice, I’m going to type before I write.

But sometimes, you don’t have a choice. This is why I started to keep a small notepad and pen on my headboard.

There’ve been multiple times when, just as I climbed into bed for the night, an idea hit me. A phrase, a title, a line, something. And if I don’t write it down, right then, it was gone.

More than once, I thought – it’ll keep ‘til morning. Yeah, not so much. Morning would come, and I had no recollection of what my thought had been.

Sometimes, I wonder what’s been lost to this over time? What stories, blogs, and other things were never started due to this? It’s an interesting question.

But not worth dwelling on. Past is passed. Done, over, can’t be changed, undone, or redone.

However – lessons can be learned and taken forward. Next time – I can and will be better prepared. I’ll make sure that I write it down, or type it out, as soon as it hits me,

At least, that’s the plan.

Photo by Matt Ragland on UnsplashDon’t just write it down ASAP – back it up, too

One night, during my sophomore year of college, a story idea came to me. It was so amazing, and I was so into it. I banged it out and got the entire first chapter done. I was really excited about what it was and where it would go.

Then, I hit the wrong key. In the blink of an eye – it was gone. This was in 1993 – so I am rather sure MS Word didn’t have an autosave option back then.

Despite multiple attempts to recreate that story – I’ve never been able to bring it back. At least, not with the energy and drive I had that night.

In the early 2000s, I had a job with lots of downtime. As such, I worked on a writing project that I saved to a flash drive – rather than my work computer. I was expanding a story I had initially written for NaNoWriMo.

I would take the flash drive between work and home and used it a lot.

What I had not expected was for it to start bleeding memory. Guess what got lost?

You should write down your ideas and interesting thoughts ASAP so that they don’t get lost. And back them up, too.

Currently, backup options are plentiful. Flash drives and the cloud are open to speedy data saving and recovery. This is way better than floppy disks and ZIP drives. Seriously.

Take it from me – write it down and back it up. Often. If I can save anyone else from the infuriating frustration of data loss – you’re welcome.

Your ideas are worth saving

When you have an idea, an inspiration, a unique notion, or whatever – it’s worth writing down. You should write it down because you never know how it might serve you.

Or others.

True, it might only be something with immediate meaning to you. But you might not realize how much it means if you lose it. Thus, write it down so that you have it.

I’ve been working on journaling more regularly. This is good for writing down thoughts and ideas when they come to me. But I am still not as adept at practicing this as I should like to be.

Everything you create matters. You don’t need to be someone special, or otherwise important. Your ideas are worth being saved. Whether or not you share them is not important. They might be for you and you alone.

Or maybe they have a greater purpose – it’s just not obvious yet.

Either way – write down those ideas, interesting thoughts, and the like. Save them because you are worthy and deserving of them and any awesomeness they might draw to and for you.

Why should you write down your ideas and interesting thoughts ASAP? Because you never know what incredible, unexpected, and amazing places they might take you to. Don’t deprive yourself or the world of them by letting them get away because you didn’t write them down.

What new thoughts and ideas will you write down today?

This is the five-hundred and fortieth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info then click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post Why Should You Write Down Your Ideas and Interesting Thoughts ASAP? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Does the World Need more Gratitude for Sustainability?

Absolutely. The world can always use more gratitude.

Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash

These are, I believe, the three most powerful phrases anyone can employ:

I amI love youThank you

All three are empowering. Each of them is an ultimate generator of conscious reality creation. And all three can create positivity and good feelings both for you as the speaker and those who you share them with.

Whatever follows I am generates incredible manifestation power. Said with conviction, I am can make or break you. I am amazing creates your reality in exactly the same way I am worthless does. And from that statement, your interactions with other people – and how they react to you – gets created, too.

I love you tends to get overloaded, misdirected, and thus misunderstood. But love is the most powerful force in the Universe. Love is far deeper than romance or interpersonal relationships in general. It is the rain on the grass, the bees pollinating flowers, the sun rising and setting every single day. When you express love with I love you – inside or outside – it’s an amazing manifester of your life experience.

When you say thank you and express gratitude – real, genuine, sincere gratitude – you empower. This is not just about that which you are giving thanks to or for – but yourself.

Being grateful and stating that gratitude builds bridges within and without. Gratitude, and thank you, is the ultimate tool of empowerment.

I cannot overstate just how powerful saying thank you and being grateful can be.

Thank you is a two-way street

When you do something for someone – big or small – how does it feel to get told “thank you” for the action?

Have you ever watched someone else’s face light up because you thanked them? Gained cooperation and a better relationship with someone because you thanked them?

Giving gratitude is just as powerful as getting it. And there is no other force in the entire Universe that has such power. This is why thank you is one of the three most powerful phrases you can employ.

Genuine, real, thought and feeling gratitude is always positive. ALWAYS. I think it might be the only thing in the Universe that is not negative.

That’s not to say you can’t turn it into a negative. Sarcastic thanks, saying the words without emotion, and begrudging gratitude is not positive at all. Used in that way, they’re not meant to be positive. Being disingenuous in your use of gratitude or giving untrue, faux thanks will disempower you in lots of terrible ways.

Look at some of the most powerful people on Earth. I am not going to name names here, but you can tell which are grateful and express genuine gratitude regularly – and which are not and don’t. Those who strive to lift others up tend to work with thanks and give as much as they receive. Meanwhile, those who tear down and work selfishly only take, give nothing of real value, and tend to damn with faint praise at best. They might generate cult followings – but the foundation they are built upon will ultimately crumble from beneath them.

In other words – gratitude both given and received builds sustainability. Working without thanks is unsustainable.

The sustainability of gratitude

Why do you think so many businesses are having issues getting and retaining workers? Lack of gratitude. That’s reflected in lousy working conditions, an imbalance of work/life, crap pay, insufficient or no benefits, and treating employees like dirt beneath their feet or worse.

This is also reflected in a corporate culture that puts shareholders ahead of consumers. When you make a product or offer a service – but only see those you make them for as numbers rather than the people behind them – you lack thankfulness. And in time, those people will come to see that – and stop patronizing you.

That’s why all these places where giving thanks and being grateful are neglected are unsustainable. Because, ultimately, when you don’t give gratitude, you don’t get it, either.

How do you feel when you call customer service and get treated like you are a problem? No thanks for buying their product or service – just a complainer who they couldn’t care less is having some issue or other? I’m going to presume you feel lousy.

How likely are you to buy from them again if they treat you that way? I’m certain the answer is not very.

Conversely, how do you feel when you call customer service and are treated with respect? They thank you for buying the product or service – and take your concern or issue seriously, striving to fix whatever issue you are having? You probably feel thankful for them being grateful for you and showing it.

How likely are you to buy from them again if they treat you that way? I’m certain the answer is very.

That is the sustainability of gratitude.

Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on UnsplashGive to get

When you give thanks, you get thanks.

It doesn’t matter if you give thanks for a person, place, thing, or whatever. Tangible or intangible, gratitude empowers. When you give more, you get more.

Genuine, real, thought and feeling thankfulness is not just a tool of positivity. It’s a tool of ultimate empowerment. You feel just as powerful and content giving it as receiving it.

If your life is lacking in some way, focusing on that lack disempowers you. Gratitude for what you do have – rather than lamenting what you don’t – opens the door to empower you to get more and better. Give thanks, get thanks.

And most of the time – gratitude costs you nothing. It is an act of kindness, compassion, and empathy that empowers when genuine.

That is why gratitude is the key to the sustainability of anything and everything material and immaterial in the world. Give it to get it and empower both yourself and those around you.

Be mindful and grateful, offer it as often as you can. This employs one of the three most powerful phrases you have available to you to build a more sustainable, widely empowered, and more content, better for all world.

Think globally, act locally. Be grateful for anything and everything that you can.

Thank you. Merci. Danke. Gracias. Dyakuyu.

Recognizing the sustainability of gratitude isn’t hard

It’s all about working with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

When you say thank you, it empowers both you and who or whatever you are thanking. Knowing that genuine, real, thought and feeling thanks is a source of empowerment both given and received, you can employ thank you and gratitude to positively expand your life experience. That empowers me – and it can empower you, too. We can make use of this to stay more neutral subconsciously, while consciously choosing things leaning towards the positive end of life’s extremes.

Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast space that exists between them – shifts the concept in a way to open more dialogue. In that form, we can explore and share where we are between those extremes and how that impacts us here and now.

Lastly, I believe the better aware we are of ourselves in the now, the more we can do to choose and decide how our life experience will be. If that empowers us, it can also open those around us to their own empowerment. And that is, to me, a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share.

Thank you for coming along on this ride with me.

This is the four hundred and twenty-ninth entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post Does the World Need more Gratitude for Sustainability? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Are You Just Spinning Your Wheels or Are You Going Somewhere?

Feeling like you’re just spinning your wheels can be frustrating and infuriating.

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

Ever have that feeling that you’re in motion, but not going anywhere?

It’s akin to a car being stuck in the mud, on sand, or on ice. Your tires spin and spin and spin – but you don’t move.

Sometimes, you do move – just really, really, slowly. Too slowly to feel like any movement is occurring.

That’s a feeling I think many of us deal with from time to time. Despite all our efforts, the work we do, the energy we put into it – we don’t see any movement.

Is it any wonder that it makes it feel like you’re just spinning your wheels?

I can commiserate. In 2020 and 2021 I published 9 novels total. Beyond those 9 novels, I wrote and published at least 260 blogs each year – more than 520 blogs total. Despite having 1200+ followers on Medium and 11 published novels on Amazon – I am not earning the kind of money I should be.

Despite all the work I put into walking this path of my choosing – it frequently feels like I might just be spinning my wheels.

To assess this properly – applied mindfulness is necessary.

Applied mindfulness for knowledge

Mindfulness is conscious awareness. And that awareness extends both within and without.

Awareness of the world outside yourself is attained via your six senses. But conscious awareness of it – mindfulness – is a matter of focus. It’s super easy to not focus on what’s going on around you. Or more – to focus on things way, way, way outside any control you could have to influence or impact them.

Awareness of yourself within is a matter of connecting your conscious mind to both your subconscious mind and ego. To gain mindfulness of your inner self, you must consciously be aware of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

When you are fully present, in the moment, here and now, you are consciously aware. That’s when and how you live from your conscious mind.

The subconscious mind is where your habits, beliefs, values, and the like exist.

Your ego is both how you envision yourself in that nebulous place between your conscious and subconscious mind – as well as how you project yourself out to the world at large. Ego is not bragging and arrogance – it’s how you share yourself with yourself and everyone else, too.

When you are not being mindful – and allowing your subconscious mind and ego to do the driving – you can lose track of where, what, when, how, and why you are. Losing track of that can allow you to stop moving forward and find yourself truly spinning your wheels.

Asking direct questions of yourself can bring you into the moment, make you present, and consciously aware (mindful) as such. These questions include

What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What am I doing and what’s my intent with that?

This knowledge, in the here-and-now, will tell you if you are going somewhere – or not.

The frustration from spinning your wheels

You do something. Along the way, you anticipate things happening as a result of what you do. You know it might take some time – but you have your eyes on the prize.

You’re only human. Even the most patient people I know have limits to their patience. You reach a point, if it takes too long, where you start to wonder. And if you have no forward motion to show – now the question:

Am I just spinning my wheels?

Sometimes this is a good question to ask. It’s easy to get fixated on an idea, concept, or plan – and give it laser-focus. Doing so, however, can also put blinders on you. This means you might miss that you’re not genuinely going somewhere.

Often, before delving into the why of spinning your wheels, you might get negative. It’s normal to feel bad about yourself, blame yourself for any perceived shortcomings, and so on.

Then, too, you might also blame outside influences.

If you are not consciously aware and mindful, you could wind up in an unnecessary loop. That’s blame – whether directed inwards or outwards. Blame, recriminations, and the like disempower.

Mindfulness empowers. And mindful awareness of if you are spinning your wheels rather than going somewhere lets you make new choices and decisions if needed.

Being aware of this, FYI, does not make it any less frustrating, annoying, or upsetting. But it does give you more control.

Photo by Ivan Vranić on UnsplashSpinning your wheels isn’t necessarily a bad thing

You might presume that spinning your wheels – given the analogy of a car stuck in the mud – is bad. But not necessarily.

Sometimes spinning your wheels is what it takes to get traction. There are times your wheels need to get turning for anything at all to happen.

There are times when spinning your wheels is more important than inaction. Choosing to make an effort – even if it’s fruitless temporarily or permanently – empowers you.

Empowerment is your ability to take the wheel and steer your life experience. When you choose to do so – you take the control that is and always has been yours.

Mindfulness lets you change direction – or rock the car back and forth to get traction to go somewhere.

You are not alone

I do not doubt that everyone goes through this from time to time.

Sometimes it’s in your control – and sometimes not. But mindfulness and working to be consciously aware is how you take control more frequently and regularly.

You are not alone if you wonder if you are just spinning your wheels or truly going somewhere. Nobody’s life is so set and so perfect that they don’t find themselves in this position from time to time. That’s just the nature of the Universe.

And even at its worst – it can still be advantageous to you. How? By teaching you something valuable that you would not have learned otherwise. In an almost infinite universe of abundance – there is ALWAYS something new to learn. Some of the things you can learn will help you make the best of your life that you possibly can.

Feeling like you’re just spinning your wheels can be frustrating and infuriating. But you are not alone, and you are not powerless to change this. Be mindful and see, here and now, all the potential and possibilities around you.

Are you currently spinning your wheels or going somewhere?

This is the five-hundred and thirty-ninth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info then click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post Are You Just Spinning Your Wheels or Are You Going Somewhere? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Do You Think you’re the Only One Who Ever Gets Stuck?

It’s easy to feel stuck – but you are not the only one.

Photo by Tanja Cotoaga on Unsplash

As I started to consider what to write today, I found myself stuck.

The usual time I make to do this writing came and went. And still, I felt stuck. Nothing sat right in my head, and I just couldn’t put the words in order.

Then I read through my Medium daily digest. And as if the Powers-that-be knew what I needed, multiple articles on a similar notion popped up.

This addressed the problem that I was facing. Stuck. Uncertain what to do, what to say, and where to go.

This showed me that I was not alone in this fight. Clearly, if multiple articles are coming up on this same topic – I’m not the only one facing this issue.

But I realized the question is still worth addressing. Because to get an answer, it had to be asked.

Do you think you’re the only one who ever gets stuck?

Why you might think you’re alone

Despite evidence that other people get stuck, too, it can still feel as if you’re on your own. All alone, stuck in a way nobody else is or has been.

And that’s the real issue. It’s not that others don’t get stuck – it’s the how, why, when, etc. What you are presently stuck on or in feels unique. Particularly when you know it’s all on you.

Everyone gets stuck from time to time. But there are some very common experiences most people have in this realm.

You get stuck on a question doing homework for school. Perhaps you get stuck resolving a relationship conflict – platonic or intimate. Most people get stuck doing something for their job somewhere along the way.

Most of these have a common cause. They’re related to the unfamiliar. You’re experiencing something you’ve never done, seen, or whatever, before. Of course, you get stuck. This is new. Because it’s new – the experience is unknown and uncertain.

That’s why these are more common. I don’t know anyone who has not encountered one or all of them.

But what about when you have passed from a common experience to one more unique? As you grow and change, your perceptions, and experiences – mixed with life lessons, biases, prejudices, beliefs, values, and more – shape you differently from me. Or anyone else.

That puts you in a position where you can get stuck in a way that doesn’t appear to resonate outside of your head, heart, and soul. That leads to the question – do you think you’re the only one who gets stuck?

You’re not the only one who gets stuck

Let’s get straight to the point here. Everyone experiences getting stuck in one way or another. It’s part of life, growth, change, and the like.

Why? Because change is the one and only constant in the Universe. Because of this truth – change happens. Even when you don’t want change to happen.

Not all instances of getting stuck are a direct result of change. Sometimes they come from a combination of change simply occurring – and you not keeping up. Other times, they come from uncertainty as you actively work on change.

And then, of course, sometimes you’re stuck due to something wholly outside your control.

If you’ve lived peacefully in a city in Ukraine for most of your life – and find yourself evacuating due to Russian bombings – you’re stuck in a situation you can’t control. Less dangerously, if you are fired from a job, dumped by a lover, involved in a car accident, or the like – you also can get stuck in a situation you can’t control.

Each of the above examples are vastly different. Why? Because of the impact and facts of the experience. If you lose your home to a bomb – but are unscathed, that’s different from someone in the same boat who was injured. Though less serious, if you are fired from your job but have a decent cushion of investments and savings, you’re differently stuck from someone who was living paycheck to paycheck.

But stuck is stuck. The what and how varies – sometimes drastically. But you’re not alone in getting stuck.

Photo by Wil Stewart on UnsplashMindfulness of your self and your situation

Getting unstuck is going to vary depending on the type, challenges, and degree of complexities of how you’re stuck. What it takes the person in Ukraine suffering from a surreal invasion versus someone at the end of a relationship to get unstuck are circumstantially vastly different.

But they do share a common starting point. Mindfulness.

Being consciously aware of how you’re stuck is going to be the first step in getting unstuck. While the actual work it takes to get unstuck might vary rather dramatically – the starting point is the same.

Mindfulness is conscious awareness of what, how, where, why, who, and when you are. It’s both an internal and external conscious awareness.

You gain external conscious awareness via sensory input. What you see, hear, taste, touch, smell, and intuit all blend to report the world without. You gain internal conscious awareness via recognizing and acknowledging what you are thinking, what and how you’re feeling, the actions you’re taking, and the intentions behind those actions. Together, these report the world within.

The internal knowledge also gives insight into your subconscious, ego, and consciousness – and how they blend.

Together, internal and external mindfulness can tell you how you are stuck if you are. Because sometimes that feeling is hard to clarify and pinpoint.

Mindfulness is the answer. Conscious awareness, here and now, will tell you how you are stuck.

How do you get unstuck? That depends on the factors and degree of stuck that you are at. But recognizing and acknowledging the what of you being stuck is how you start to get unstuck.

Knowing that you are not the only one who is stuck or gets stuck, it’s easier to share, without shame, guilt, or fear. And then ask for help if needs be.

Recognizing how you are stuck isn’t hard

It’s all about working with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

When you recognize that you are stuck, you can apply your conscious awareness – mindfulness – here and now to recognize the factors that have gotten you there – and to what degree you are. Knowing that you are definitely not the only one who gets stuck, you can make use of this knowledge to reach out for help – or share what you’re going through to gain insight without shame, guilt, or fear. That empowers me – and it can empower you, too. We can make use of this to stay more neutral subconsciously, while consciously choosing things leaning towards the positive end of life’s extremes.

Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast space that exists between them – shifts the concept in a way to open more dialogue. In that form, we can explore and share where we are between those extremes and how that impacts us here and now.

Lastly, I believe the better aware we are of ourselves in the now, the more we can do to choose and decide how our life experience will be. If that empowers us, it can also open those around us to their own empowerment. And that is, to me, a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share.

Thank you for coming along on this ride with me.

This is the four hundred and twenty-sixth entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post Do You Think you’re the Only One Who Ever Gets Stuck? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

How Important is it to Know What Is Your Why?

What is your why – in this context – is not about the overarching meaning of life.

Photo by AZGAN MjESHTRI on Unsplash

Every single human life matters.

All lives are important. Each and every one of us is endowed with some scientifically amazing attributes. These allow us to experience our world like no other animal on Earth.

When we are first born, our lives are lived wholly in the now. All we know is waking, sleeping, and being. During this period, we’re just like the rest of the animal kingdom.

Then, as we grow, we develop a different set of sensibilities. These open us to the concepts of past and future. While they deepen our overall understanding of this world – they’re confusing as all hell.

I don’t remember a lot about my childhood. But I do remember, albeit fuzzily, spending hours at a time, alone in my backyard. But I was acting out a myriad of adventures with my Star Wars action figures in new and original stories of my invention.

I believe that I don’t recall these in detail because they existed solely in the now that was my reality, then. Sure, I continued my stories over time – but all of that was in the moment, the now of then.

As we get older, we start asking deeper questions. And while they are often intended to deepen our connections – they frequently cause more disconnect. Specifically – disconnect from ourselves.

We mistake the spiritual, philosophical question of “Why am I here?” with “What is your why?” And I would argue the latter question is the better, more important one to answer.

Why are we here?

This is a question asked by philosophers, scientists, religious leaders, gurus, and others questing for the deepest meanings.

Each person asking this question comes to it from their own perspective, biases, prejudices, beliefs, values, and whatnot. Thus, one similar answer can have two very different interpretations.

For example – How did it all begin?

The general answer a religious leader is likely to tell you is that God created it all. God, as such, is unending, can be neither created nor destroyed and makes up everything in the Universe.

The general answer a scientist is likely to tell you is that energy is the root of it all. That energy is unending, can be neither created nor destroyed and makes up everything in the Universe.

This is the same answer – but from very different vantage points.

And both often conflict rather than meet in the middle or recognize how they agree.

This is why this question isn’t the important question. Sure, having the answer definitively might be amazing and potentially life-changing. But then, frankly, the answer might not impact you and me at all.

All you have to do is look at how the world today is dominated by confirmation bias, opinion, and cognitive dissonance. Armchair quarterbacks have devolved into armchair scientists – unable to reconcile how theory in science is not unsupported opinion, but rather peer-reviewed and agreed-upon best present understanding.

Why are we here? To me, the answer to this question is simple – we are here to experience life and live.

As part of that answer, however, we get to the more important question.

What is your why?

No two people are alike. And that means that there are almost 8 billion (8,000,000,000) separate, unalike, unique individuals on Planet Earth.

While we are individuals, we are also pack-minded. No matter how far back you go in history – people were gathered in packs, tribes, and the like. Survival and growth of the individual relied on the group.

When we left behind the nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle so very long ago, we evolved. The individual became increasingly empowered.

This was less evident during Medieval times when the powerful and empowered were few. But as we moved to our current society, the ability for everyone to be empowered increased exponentially.

Some people haven’t taken that well. And this is true both for those who recognize their power and empowerment – and those who don’t. But today, given our global interconnectivity and incredible technologies, every single person on this planet can be empowered.

While this is easier for some than for others, it starts the same no matter what. It is the answer to “what is your why?”

Why do you live where you live? What is the why of your job? Why do you associate with the people that you do? What is the why behind your beliefs, values, and habits?

The number of answers available are infinite. The combinations are equally infinite.

Some people don’t know. This is for many different reasons. But everyone CAN know. We are all empowered to learn “what is your why?”

This is done via mindfulness, of course.

Photo by Callum Shaw on UnsplashMindfulness and what is your why

The only way to know what your why is is to ask “what is your why?”

This is a very powerful question. “What is my why?” can inform us of in-depth concepts including who, what, where, how, and when we are.

This is a mindful question. When you ask it, you are making yourself consciously aware.

Conscious awareness is mindfulness. It’s being in the here and now, the present, consciously aware.

Mindfulness tells you what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, what actions you are taking, and the intentions behind them. Additionally, what is your why can be identified in that moment, too.

This might seem selfish to some. But to be honest – is there anyone other than you in your head, heart, or soul? Of course not. Thus, your why is known to you and only you.

We can share this info – but only you can comprehend and understand yourself. Thus, what is your why is not selfish – it’s self-knowledge and self-awareness.

There is one large issue about this topic I can’t ignore.

What your why is will change

What drove me when I was a teenager is not what drove me in my 20s. And similarly, what drove me then doesn’t drive me now.

There are similarities. But my why has changed. And that’s utterly to be expected.

Why? Because change is the only constant in the Universe. Change is inevitable. And that’s how come your why will change.

This is another important reason why mindfulness matters as it does. Because the past has come and gone, and the future is uncertain and unwritten. Only the now, this moment, is completely, fully, and really real.

What is your why is not a one-time, one-and-done question. It’s ongoing and ever-changing.

But you know what? That’s a good thing! Because as we grow, evolve, and change – so should our why.

Values, beliefs, habits, experiences, emotions, thoughts, and all else related to what makes you, you, aren’t set in stone. That leaves them malleable and changeable. I don’t know about you – but being who I am now versus who I was in the past, I’m super glad for this.

Your why is important because it can drive your life. And more important, by far, than the overarching “why are we here” notion. What your why is empowers you to make choices and decisions to have, do, and be virtually anything you can dream of. I think that’s pretty damned amazing and utterly worthwhile.

So – what is your why today?

This is the five-hundred and thirty-eighth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

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